


You can run, but you can't hide

by Rei (Arterra)



Category: Dream Team - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst For The Angst God, Blood, Caves, Death, Hurt No Comfort, I'm... sorry., Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Oceans, Panic Attacks, Psychopath Dream
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:07:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25428907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arterra/pseuds/Rei
Summary: A boy in blue runs through the forest, crashing through everything in his way. He’s panting hard, scratches all over his arms from where he has to barrel through the brush in his path.At no point does he look back, but you can tell he’s running from something. He ducks behind a tree, leaning against it to try to catch his breath. He makes the mistake of closing his eyes for a second too long.“Oh George…”
Comments: 54
Kudos: 139
Collections: MCYTs Fics





	1. Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Red Sun Never Sets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18122372) by [ThaneZain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThaneZain/pseuds/ThaneZain). 



> TWs will be on every chapter, I expect to see a few pop up. I don't think there are any here, but lmk if I'm wrong about that
> 
> Based on The Red Sun Never Sets by ThaneZain in the Hermitcraft RPF.

A boy in blue runs through the forest, crashing through everything in his way. He’s panting hard, scratches all over his arms from where he has to barrel through the brush in his path. 

At no point does he look back, but you can tell he’s running from something. He ducks behind a tree, leaning against it to try to catch his breath. He makes the mistake of closing his eyes for a second too long. 

“Oh, George…” A voice, close, too close for comfort. 

The boy in blue breaks out into a sprint again, running away, away from the man he once knew, away from his inevitable death. 

A root. He doesn’t see it. His foot catches, and he falls down, down, down, his arms automatically trying to break his fall.

He never hits the ground. 

He barely registers an arm around his waist, a sharp pain in his head-

_ It started out as just another manhunt. The three muffinteers versus Dream. The goal was for Dream to try and beat the Ender Dragon before he died, even once.  _

_ But something happened.  _

_ A clap of thunder, the compass suddenly pointing in the other direction, away from wherever Dream must have been.  _

_ The sky turning a deep blood red, or at least that’s what his teammates said.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swore. I swore I would never write angst. But I couldn't get this out of my head. I'm sorry.
> 
> This is just a teaser. I want to know what everyone thinks, so a comment would be very much appreciated.


	2. White

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: none. It's starting out slow, I'm not sure how slow.

A boy in white. He swims through and around the kelp, looking around him frantically. He starts at every hint of green, anything that could resemble a white mask with an ominous smile on it. He surfaces to breathe, but he never stops moving, never stops swimming away, moving in the direction his compass is pointing. He doesn’t know what it points to, or if it just points away from his friend. 

No. Not his friend. Not anymore.

**His hunter** . He never thought he would have a hunter, wrapped up in hunting Dream down, trying to keep him from beating the Ender Dragon. 

He knows he just has to keep running away from the man he once knew.

There’s no hope of defeating his hunter on his own. 

  
  
  


_ He pulled out his communicator to message Dream, see if he saw the same things the three friends saw.  _

_ [Sapnap] Hey Dream, there was thunder and now the sky’s red? Did you see that? _

_ [Dream] Change of plans. Roles are reversed. Start running _

_ He looked at his two companions. They looked as confused as him. _

_ [Georgenotfound] Dream? _

_ [BadBoyHalo] Dream, are you okay? _

_ There was no response. The three friends looked at each other, looked at their compasses, and started running.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a plan now.


	3. Black

A boy in black. Running away, running for his life. He rushes through plains, pushing aside the long grass in his way. He clutches a wound on his side. The blood around it is caked on, it’s been there for a while. There’s a lot of blood, he’s been leaving a trail for a while now. His head swims as he whips it around from time to time, looking for the telltale green of his hunter. 

He never really thought of the man in green as his friend, having met him when said masked man invited him to participate in the events. 

The green man was always somewhat terrifying to him, so this sudden turn to evil didn’t seem all that out of character. 

The man in black thought he was right about the green man being on the brink of insanity, inches away from turning around and killing them all. Now they all ran from him, from his blade, from their inevitable death. 

There was no escape. 

_ The three boys ran and ran, knowing they couldn’t escape but wanting to delay the inevitable as much as possible.  _

_ They came upon a cave system, and, glancing around, they ducked inside.  _

_ They needed iron, needed buckets if they wanted to survive very long.  _

_ They made a furnace, made 3, put iron ore to smelt, and coal to burn in the furnaces.  _

_ They didn’t think to keep watch for their hunter.  _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...pretty sure you can see where this is going. At least the flashback part of the chapters. The rest of it is gonna throw a big curveball next-


	4. Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :/

A man in green. Swiping the vines in his path as he makes his way through the forest, towards his prey. Unseeing, unthinking. He can only think about the best way to kill. 

The blue figure in front of him runs, barreling through the brush. He knows his prey must be getting tired, must be getting hungry, they’ve been running for a while now. He sees his prey duck behind a tree, slows to a walk. 

“Oh George…”

His prey takes off running again. 

The figure in blue doesn’t get far. 

He trips on a root, arms pinwheeling to catch himself. 

The man in green catches up, grabs him. He never hits the ground. 

A nice whack on the head. 

[Georgenotfound has been slain by Dream]

One down. Two to go. 

_ The man in green stalks through the entrance of the cave that his compass points to. There’s a light inside.  _

_ He rushes toward the light, pulling out his sword. The only person there is the boy in black, he’s turned away from the green man, bent over the crafting table. He hasn’t heard the footsteps  _ _ over the furnace yet.  _

_ A swipe of a sword, a shriek of pain- and his prey is running away.  _

_ He gives chase, knowing his prey would lead him to his companions.  _

_ He did, shouting to them, being very, very noisy and annoying.  _

_ The three of them started going up, digging into the wall and up, up, up to the surface.  _

_ He followed them up. There, they split, one of them going to a forest, one to an ocean, and one to a plain.  _

_ He follows the boy in blue to the forest. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. 4 chapters in, the exposition is done. This is probably going to be a long one.


	5. Of Death and Caves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood at the very end

The boy in white swims and swims through the ocean. He spots a cave in the side of a hill just beyond the water line. Glancing around and deeming it safe enough, he veers off in the direction of that cave.

He gets to shore, glances around one last time before ducking inside and sealing the mouth of the cave off with dirt. 

His communicator buzzes. 

George is dead. Killed by Dream. 

There was no message afterward of “oh come on! I was steps away from escape!” or even “no! How could you???” like the man in green would normally send after they killed him.

Like he knew the blue boy would have. 

He stares at the screen of the device in his hand, waiting for a message from the boy in blue. 

[Dream] The two of you better not have stopped running. I’m still coming for you.

The boy in white’s eyes widened as it sunk in what just happened. 

His friend was dead. Maybe forever. 

He turns away, puts his communicator back in his pocket, and starts mining for the materials to survive. 36 iron at least, a few diamonds just to feel somewhat safe. He knew the man in green would beat him anyway, but he still wanted to at least injure him enough to buy the boy in black a little bit of time to figure out what was going on. 

That was if he was the next target, as opposed to the green man going for the boy in black next. 

He had no idea what the masked man would do next, and that was the terrifying part.

_ He drops the now limp body in his hands. His communicator buzzes, and he is reminded of its existence.  _

_ He types a message, a warning to the still living.  _

_ He will not let up until they meet the same fate as the boy in blue lying at his feet, blood slowly forming a puddle. _

_ For a second, the fog in his head clears, and he drops to his knees, staring at the boy. _

_ “What have I done.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so it's been a while I know. It's been like a week after I said I would update every day. But I had to figure out where to go with the story, so I planned out the rest, and now the updates will hopefully be consistent. I got really excited about this when I came up with the idea and didn't have a direction to go in so that wasn't very smart of me.


	6. The Village

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of blood, wounds, and death.

The boy in black runs along, clutching the wound on his side. In the distance, he sees a village. 

What luck, he’s about to die of blood loss, he thinks. A village right there for him. 

He glances around once, but when his head swims at the movement he doesn’t do it again. 

He stumbles toward the village, toward relative safety, toward his salvation. 

As he nears the cluster of small buildings, he sees the villagers start rushing out of their houses, chattering and staring at him, one lone player, stumbling toward their houses.

One bursts through the crowd, dressed in the garb of the village healer, and waves others along to help him. He nearly collapses in relief when their hands reach to help him.

They bring him to the church, to help him, lay him down in a bed, to heal him. They wrap bandages around his side, try to quell the bleeding. 

Then they start asking questions. 

“This looks like a sword cut, who did this to you?”

He doesn’t know how to explain that his friend went insane and tried to kill him.

“How long has this been here?”

He doesn’t know how to tell them that he’s been running since the man in green found them in that cave.

“How much blood have you lost?”

He doesn’t know how to tell them that he can’t find his voice to answer any of the questions.

Eventually, the questions stop, and he lays his head down on the pillow in relief. 

He wakes up a few times as the villagers are tending to him, tending to his injury, trying to feed him, but he sleeps pretty soundly otherwise. 

Eventually, he wakes up, and his side no longer hurts. He gets up, stretches, and leaves the church. 

He glances around, seeing the trees from the forest in the distance. His communicator buzzes slightly, notifying him of unread messages, and he pulls it out, and almost drops it when he sees what’s on the screen.

Everything comes rushing back to him all of a sudden, the panic, the fear, the running. 

George is dead.

Dream is coming. 

_ He shakes his head, wondering why he’s on his knees. He doesn’t remember kneeling.  _

_ No matter.  _

_ There are two more prey to kill. _

_ And he expects them to fight him more than this one did. _

_ They aren’t as scared of the world and all its horrors.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I've realized there were some things I could have done better and revealed later but the chapter's already been up for a bit and I'm not changing it now, just going on the list of things I can do better next time I write angst :D


	7. Iron-Clad Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boy in white does a lot of crafting and planning.

Sticking the last of the iron into a furnace, the boy in white melts it down into the ingots he needs to craft with. 

It turned out to be a rather large cave system, and he found some diamonds rather far down and some string in a mineshaft. No lava pools, which was kind of abnormal for such a large cave system. 

The boy in white crafts a pair of leggings and a sword with the diamonds he found. 

He supplements the diamonds with iron, crafting a pickaxe, axe, helmet, chestplate, and a pair of boots with the iron that comes out of the furnace. 

He crafts a bucket, to fill with the next bit of water he sees.

He gathers up a decent amount of the cobblestone he mined, to use as blocks later if he so needed. 

He crafts a shield, knowing it will be helpful in the inevitable battle against his masked hunter. 

Not that he has any semblance of a clue where the hunter was.

Then he remembered his compass turning around and pointing in the other direction when everything… 

Changed. 

On a whim, he pulled out the compass from the beginning of the game, noticing it was pointed in a direction. He turned it, and it stayed pointed where it was pointing. 

Maybe he did know where his hunter was.    


He waved around the compass, side to side, and was relieved when it didn’t appear to move. The green man wasn’t all enough nearby that moving the compass a little bit affected where it pointed.

But still, even if he had a way to know about where the hunter was, he didn’t have a plan. That was important. 

It was generally harder to pvp in enclosed spaces, so if he could mine and move in fairly straight lines underground, he could escape down the tunnels. If he placed blocks down as he ran then the green-clad man would have to mine through the blocks to get to him, giving him more time to run away. 

He could do that through the nether, as well, if it came to that. 

_ The man scans the area around him, head unmoving as he searches for a cave. Despite the initial victory against the blue boy, he still needed materials in order to defeat the other two prey. _

_ He sees an opening and ducks inside, not bothering to block up the opening. There was nothing after him. _

_ He had nothing to fear in this world. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know it's been a while since I updated but I kinda sorta spilled water on my laptop and had to wait for that to dry out because all the files for this are on the computer, dw though it's fine now


	8. Creepers Have to go Caving Too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: None this chapter

The boy in black runs, far away. He’s already stayed in the village long enough, if he remains much longer he may get caught. 

He has nothing save for the one iron chestplate he managed to craft before the man in green caught them the first time. 

That was terrifying. He couldn’t do that again. He keeps moving, in what he thinks is the same direction as before, judging by the bloodstains on the grass on one side of the village. 

He’s gotta get to a cave, he’s gotta get stuff, he’s gotta figure out what’s going on-

But he needs wood first, and there’s not a tree in sight, he’s gotta backtrack to the village-

No, he can’t go back, he’s gotta go forward-

But the only wood in sight is the village-

He sighs and turns around to steal wood from the village to make a crafting table and a set of wood tools, just to start off, he’s only going to make 4 logs.

The boy in black manages to get the logs he needs without disturbing the villagers too much, somehow.

He doesn’t know how he manages it. He turns back around and renews his search for a cave. 

When he does find one, he enters and tries to block off the entrance with dirt, making it look as natural as possible. Hopefully, the grass will spread to cover it before the hunter gets here.

He finds a fair bit of iron more quickly than he expects and starts it smelting before going to pull out his communicator. Maybe he can message his friend in white, try to regroup and figure out what’s going on.

Before he can figure much out, he spots some green behind him, deep in the cave. His chest tightens up, he can barely think save for “run away.”

He knows green means death. 

It’s all he can do as he grabs his iron as quietly as possible, keeping half an eye on the green in the cave. He grabs it, and winces as the dirt he digs makes noise. 

He doesn’t notice the absence of a nametag above the green, doesn’t notice the black frown on the face. Doesn’t notice there’s no mask. 

He will never know that in that moment, all he was scared of… was a creeper. 

_ His next mission is to find a cave, find iron. These things are necessary to hunt down his prey. If he wants to win he must acquire the necessary tools.  _

_ Those remaining may be weaker than the blue boy, but they aren’t to be underestimated. _


	9. So many caves, so little time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: None this time idk how I did that

He’s going through the motions at this point, getting iron, finding a lava pool. 

From time to time he takes out his compass, to wave it around. He keeps mining until he’s satisfied the hunter is nowhere near. He finds a few more diamonds, digging around like he is, enough for a pickaxe. He keeps two for later, in case he can get an enchantment table. 

He finds a few caves, wanders around. 

He finds creepers and zombies and skeletons. 

He doesn’t die. 

But he gets close.

He’s lucky to find a golden apple in a skeleton spawner, digging through the walls to get to the chests.

He wolfs it down and collapses against a wall, and his eyes droop.

The next thing he knows, he’s starting awake, having slid down to the floor. He stretches, his neck aching from sleeping in a full suit of armor. 

His wounds are completely healed, and he remembers what’s happened. 

He remembers why he was running.

The boy in white takes out his compass, waves it around, and it moves ever so slightly. He jumps up and mines in the direction it points, away from the hunter. 

A while later, he doesn’t know how long, he takes out the compass and waves it around. The compass satisfies him with a lack of movement. He now mines with the sole goal of finding a lava pool. 

He finds gravel, and all is well until he mines a block underneath him. It must’ve been floating, a glitch in the matrix. He falls into lava, and in his panic, he takes out his water and turns all the lava into obsidian trying to get out alive. 

There goes a promising lava pool. Oh well, there are always more pools.

He keeps mining, keeping his distance from the block he’s hacking away at and finds another lava pool.

He jumps down and makes the portal to the second dimension. 

He lights it with some iron and a piece of flint he found, and steps through.

_ He’s almost done mining the iron he needs when he hears it. A notification going off.  _

_ Pulling out his communicator, he recognizes the message.  _

_ In the back of his mind, he knows what it means. _

_ Sapnap has earned the advancement [We Need to go Deeper] _

_ One of his prey has made it far.  _

_ He needs to go quickly. _


	10. Lava and Water

The boy in black has no idea what he’s doing. He’s got a full set of iron armor and tools, but it’s not enough. The hunter is likely to have the same, and he knows can’t beat his antagonist. 

All he can hope for is to stay ahead of the man. 

He knows the other boy is in the nether, and that’s probably his best bet to survive. 

He knows he has to find water, then find a lava pool, but in the depths of a dead-end cave that’s not going to be easy. 

By the time he gets in his friend would be too far away to help. 

He could stay in the overworld, could hope to delay the hunter just long enough for the boy in white to get to the end. 

But could he really delay his predator - (was that what it had come to?) - long enough to make a difference?

He knows he’s not very good with fighting, and he doesn’t know how to jump around as well as the other. 

…

Probably best to just go to the nether.

But first, he’s gotta find a lava pool, which is proving much harder than expected. All this underground to search? Lava pools aren’t that big, they’re tiny in the grand scheme of things. 

He mines in a straight line, deciding that’s the best way to find a pool, and keeps his ear out for the telltale bubbling of hot magma. 

Somewhere along the way, he realizes he doesn’t have a bucket, so he crafts one real quick and hopes he finds some water to fill it with. 

He certainly didn’t expect to find water this way, though. 

He’s leaning a little too hard against the next block he’s mining and suddenly he’s stepping on air, tumbling through the new cave to splash into the water at the bottom. 

There’s a skeleton somewhere to his right, he can hear its bones thudding against the stone floor of the cave. 

A glance to the left, to make sure a man clad in green and iron isn’t going to leap out at him, and he’s killing the skeleton. 

Somewhere in the distance of the cave, a flash of green, and he freezes. 

It shifts, and he collects the water as he realizes it’s just a creeper. 

How odd, he had never thought a creeper would be the least of his worries at any point in his life. 

The boy in black sees some iron off to the side, and when he collects it, he sees a warm glow further down.

He rejoices at the discovery of a lava pool at long last, and quickly (at least, as quickly as he can…) builds a portal. 

As he steps through into the heat of the nether, his communicator buzzes. 

Twice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all! It's been a while, a few months at least, but I now have motivation in life to do the things I want to do and this is something I wanted to do. I'm also developing a plan for another multichapter, but I'm going to finish this one first because I really like it and I don't want it to fall by the wayside. 
> 
> Also, I might've joined a discord server and started doing sprints there. Sprints are frickin amazing lemme tell ya, the mix of competition and a time limit? That's the shit.


	11. Trails and Fortresses

The boy in white knows someone’s gonna die.

His communicator just buzzed twice.

Oh well, he knows his friend is dead, sitting around won’t help anyone. 

Won’t help him.

He keeps sprinting through the unforgiving wastelands of the nether, his goal simple: a fortress.

He sees a blocky shape in the distance, across a pool of lava. As he debates how to get to it, he realizes it doesn’t much matter how, just that he does.

There are several stacks of cobblestone in his pack. Probably enough to get over there. Oh well, he’s only got one shot at this…

He starts bridging across, he’s being careful, he can’t afford to be fast when it might cost him his life. And he doesn’t know if he can come back.

Best not to try, he thinks, as he realizes he doesn’t want to be followable. He hadn’t left a trail so far. He shouldn’t start now. 

He turns around, there’s a flash of motion ducking behind a small mound of netherack he didn’t remember being there, he panics- how did the hunter find him, how didn’t he feel the communicator buzz as he slew the other prey-

And a piglin walks out from behind the mound. 

He runs to the other end of the cobblestone bridge and starts breaking it, determined to leave nothing behind. No trail to follow. 

Even if he can’t get back easily, there’s a whole fortress made of nether brick that he could dismantle for another bridge. 

He knows he might be glad about breaking this one later. 

When he gets to the fortress, he realizes he had just enough cobblestone to get there. He’s gonna have to dismantle the structure to get back.

As he explores, he manages to find enough obsidian in the chests for another portal, which is just fine and dandy with him! At least he doesn’t have to go back to the original portal!

He’s not even sure he remembers the way back, anyway…

The blaze spawner is fairly simple to find, thankfully, he doesn’t have to spend hours upon hours wandering a seemingly endless fortress to find it. 

His communicator buzzes once, and he knows it’s for the achievement of getting some blaze rods, but he doesn’t dare check to make sure. The possibility he could’ve missed a message is too high, he thinks, and he’s happier in denial.

There’s no way his friend got out of that alive anyway. 

_ Opening his eyes and blinking away the brief nausea of the portal, he sees his goal sprinting away from it and him as fast as he can. _

_ “Come here, Bad!” he shrieks, knowing it would throw the other off guard and hopefully terrify him just that little bit more.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments and kudos they give me life! I try to read and respond to every comment I get!
> 
> Also come say hi on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/reiofsuns)


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